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The First Pictures Of Earth Marks 50 Years

Monday 8th of August 2011 06:33:19 AM

The first pictures of Earth marks 50 years

50th anniversary of the space conquest

They were taken on August 6, 1961. The first pictures of Earth marks 50 years

Guerman Titov was the second Russian cosmonaut to fly into spaceOn 6 August 1961 he climbed to the Vostok-2 with a film to the shoulder cameraAn exhibition in Moscow takes the first pictures taken from space

Russian Yuri Gagarin took all honours being the first man to fly into space, but it was his Deputy, Guerman Titov, the first to photograph the Earth for 50 years.

"Gagarin said again that he had seen the Earth and everyone believed him." "Therefore, Titov mission was taking images of our planet that everyone could see," said one of the organizers of the exhibition '50 years of space photography'.

Titov, who had not yet overcome the disappointment was not to be the first Cosmonaut of the story, could see fulfilled his dream on August 6, 1961 to climb aboard the spacecraft Vostok-2 with a film camera on his shoulder.

"You need to more difficult missions," had told him several months before Sergei Korolyov, the father of Soviet cosmonautics.A camera Konvas-Avtomat

What never imagined Titov is what would happen to the history just by being the first to shoot images of our planet with the Konvas-Avtomat camera and a few reels of 300 mm, which can be seen at the exhibition in the Gallery Fotosoyuz in Moscow.

Precisely, the first photos of the Earth were taken from the shooting carried out by Titov during the 17 rounds gave to our planet, 25 hours during which even gave him time to sleep, in which it exceeded Gagarin flew 108 minutes.

"everything is going well, everything is going well." "You see the Earth and a large river, although there are many clouds", reported to the control center an excited Titov.

The three historical photos show a planet Earth blue covered with white clouds on a black background; a shy dawn and an image of the window from which the Soviet Cosmonaut took the images.

To make these photos, Titov received more than 60 hours of instruction in the handling of cameras which made him a true professional.

In the exhibition you can see several pictures of Titov, Gagarin and Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman to travel into space, with cameras in hand.

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Photography space

From the feat of Titov, the picture has been part of all space missions, such as when Neil Armstrong descended to the lunar surface aboard Apollo 11 and took some pictures that appear in the Moon and the Earth in the same shot.

Although it was not until 1972 that the crew of Apollo 17, the last to walk on the Moon, photographed the Earth the complete picture that happened to the history of humanity and has been hanging on the walls of the homes of half the world.

Only a few days ago, two Russian cosmonauts took a walk outside the international space station to photograph three portraits of Gagarin, Korolyov and Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky with Earth in the background.

Now, instead, the best photos not are taken the crew the Russian spacecraft Soyuz, American ferries or orbital platform, but satellites and probes that star in interplanetary flights.

In addition to taking pictures, Titov, who was only 25 years old when he traveled to outer space, was the first man to suffer dizziness due to the lack of gravity, which did not prevent him to fall asleep easily.

His widow, Tamara, said that Titov was never considered a hero, because he believed that his flight had been an achievement of "all the Soviet people", but yes it was "proud" of having been a pioneer in the conquest of space.

"Titov was the first space photographer." Thanks to his work, we knew what beautiful is Earth. But main thing that demonstrated his flight was that the men could live and work in the cosmos, said.

His feat allowed Soviet scientists to verify that man could endure long space flights without suffering alterations in his State of health and, incidentally, struck a new propaganda blow to United States.

On May 5 the sub-orbital flight of American astronaut Alan Shepard on board in the Freedom-7 had been the response of Washington to the feat of Gagarin, but his journey had lasted barely 15 minutes, which is why the USSR carried clearly lead us in the emerging space race.

Titov, who remains the youngest man in the cosmos, died in the year 2000 and is only remembered by the Russians, with the exception of his hometown, Polkóvnikovo (Siberian region of Altai), which will inaugurate tomorrow, Saturday, a Museum in his honor.